Well I can’t really say that much about the third part of the book I read. Because I was reading it so could just finish up with the book and be done with it. But towards the end of the book, I still had the same mind about it as I did in the beginning. It might be interesting to read, but I did not like all the swearing. There was just a lot of swearing and it just ruined the whole book for me. His stories weren’t even all that good. There were some stories that were with a good lesson. Such as the ones about when his brother would trick him into doing something. That lesson is that you shouldn’t trust your older brother. Also, he has anger management problems. He said so himself. He later became a therapist though. I guess that’s a good thing.
He talks about child abuse towards the end of the book. This one guy named Jonah had anger management problems. He sold drugs on the street and couldn’t get a decent job. So his wife Deeana had to find a job and she worked two jobs. While she was gone through out the whole day, Jonah had to watch their little baby girl. Her name was Shauna. One day, when Shauna kept crying, Jonah got really mad and couldn’t control himself. He grabbed Shauna and shook her. Jonah went to jail for six months and his daughter was put in a place in New Mexico. The reason Jonah came into Chris’s office was because he felt terrible about what he had done and couldn’t live with himself.
Now his wife was pregnant with another child. And they were still married. Crutcher was kind of amazed at that. He thought that not many couples would stay together after the father shook the child and damaged her. Jonah wanted to support the family, but the only way he could do that was to sell drugs on the street again. Chris told him that it was not a good idea. Jonah didn’t want to hurt this new baby. He had already completed anger management classes and was getting better. But he couldn’t live with what he did. After that day, Jonah called two days later and told Chris that he decided to never again hurt this new baby, and that he will be a better father and husband to his family. That was the last Chris ever heard of him.
There was another story about a little girl named Allie. The first time he saw her, she was trying to wash of the brown of her skin. She was doing that so that she would be allowed to sit at the dinner table with her all-white half-brothers or play with toys. Her mother had slept with a black man and she was the result of that. The man that her mother was living with currently was white and he did not like Allie. He was her stepfather and he treated her badly. He argued constantly with her mother and that made Allie sad. But she was a happy child and was always smiling. But she was living proof of the sin that her mother committed and she knew that she would probably not be accepted by her stepfather anytime soon.
This is just sad and it is more of a racism issue than of a child abuse issue. The stories like this one and the one previously shows the more serious side of Chris Crutcher. His other side is just a childish side. When he was little he was a little wimpy kid that couldn’t do anything no matter how hard he tried. And that wasn’t very hard because he was also a lazy boy. So the whole book was about how his life was being a dweeb and a loser. His brother constantly manipulated him. I can say that I did learn something from this book. Some valuable lessons, but I learned a lot about Chris Crutcher and about his life before he became a writer.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Second Blog
SECOND BLOG
Well, I am now going to blog about what I thought about the book as I was reading the middle of it. So when I was towards the middle of the book, I thought it was an ok book. It was alright. Yes, there were some bad spots in it that I didn’t like, but otherwise it was okay. It wasn’t really that boring. There were some funny parts in it that made me laugh. I would sit there with a smile on my face. But then I got to chapter eight. This chapter caught my attention.
This chapter was titled Conversations with Gawd. I started reading the chapter. This chapter was about him going to church when he was little. One time, they were told that if they came EVERY Sunday to Sunday school, they would win a prize. This was no ordinary prize. You couldn’t buy it in a store. They had to go to Sunday school for 52 weeks and never miss a Sunday to be able to get the prize. So out of twenty-five or thirty kids, three of them made it. They went up to the front and got a small, white, expensive-looking box. Inside they found a greenish white plastic sign mounted on a brown plastic base that read JESUS SAVES. Crutch got very disappointed. But then they preacher turned out the lights and the sign glowed. JESUS SAVES was glowing. Chris got very excited. When he got home, he closed himself up in his room and turned out the lights, and just sat there staring at his prize.
His brother came downstairs, and wanted to look at Chris’s prize. He took it and Chris started grabbing it back. That’s when the J broke off of JESUS SAVES. Now what was left was ESUS SAVES. Crutch started crying like a bawl baby. John, his brother, started telling him that he could break his toys. But Chris was smarter than that. Then John tried something else. He asked Chris if he knew that Jesus had an older brother. This got Chris interested even though he knew it wasn’t true. To keep Chris from telling on him, John made up a story of how Jesus had an older brother that was the smarter one, but he wasn’t very well known. He named that imaginary man Esus. Chris didn’t believe him, but John said that if Chris would tell the parents, they would take away his glowing statue because no one was supposed to know about Esus. That shut Chris up. And he didn’t tell his parents. Throughout Chris’s life, his brother John kept repeatedly lying to him to keep himself out of trouble.
The rest of the chapter is about how when Chris would question the teacher, he would be sent outside the classroom, to sit on the bench. Chris always needed to know the right answer and be able to understand everything that was in the Bible. Crutcher admits that he is not a Christian and believes that there was a big bang and here we are now. I do not agree with that. I believe that God created the world, and sent his only son, Jesus to die on the cross for us. There was no big bang, which blew up matter that came from nowhere and all of a sudden created Earth. In the beginning there was God, and HE created Earth, not a big bang, that *poof* blew up and here we are. He brought up a lot of interesting points in this chapter. He says that life is fair, when asked if he thought if life was fair, and said that it was people that were not fair. Not life. I agree with that. It is because of the people’s choices that they think that life is not fair, when it is perfectly fair.
Well, I am now going to blog about what I thought about the book as I was reading the middle of it. So when I was towards the middle of the book, I thought it was an ok book. It was alright. Yes, there were some bad spots in it that I didn’t like, but otherwise it was okay. It wasn’t really that boring. There were some funny parts in it that made me laugh. I would sit there with a smile on my face. But then I got to chapter eight. This chapter caught my attention.
This chapter was titled Conversations with Gawd. I started reading the chapter. This chapter was about him going to church when he was little. One time, they were told that if they came EVERY Sunday to Sunday school, they would win a prize. This was no ordinary prize. You couldn’t buy it in a store. They had to go to Sunday school for 52 weeks and never miss a Sunday to be able to get the prize. So out of twenty-five or thirty kids, three of them made it. They went up to the front and got a small, white, expensive-looking box. Inside they found a greenish white plastic sign mounted on a brown plastic base that read JESUS SAVES. Crutch got very disappointed. But then they preacher turned out the lights and the sign glowed. JESUS SAVES was glowing. Chris got very excited. When he got home, he closed himself up in his room and turned out the lights, and just sat there staring at his prize.
His brother came downstairs, and wanted to look at Chris’s prize. He took it and Chris started grabbing it back. That’s when the J broke off of JESUS SAVES. Now what was left was ESUS SAVES. Crutch started crying like a bawl baby. John, his brother, started telling him that he could break his toys. But Chris was smarter than that. Then John tried something else. He asked Chris if he knew that Jesus had an older brother. This got Chris interested even though he knew it wasn’t true. To keep Chris from telling on him, John made up a story of how Jesus had an older brother that was the smarter one, but he wasn’t very well known. He named that imaginary man Esus. Chris didn’t believe him, but John said that if Chris would tell the parents, they would take away his glowing statue because no one was supposed to know about Esus. That shut Chris up. And he didn’t tell his parents. Throughout Chris’s life, his brother John kept repeatedly lying to him to keep himself out of trouble.
The rest of the chapter is about how when Chris would question the teacher, he would be sent outside the classroom, to sit on the bench. Chris always needed to know the right answer and be able to understand everything that was in the Bible. Crutcher admits that he is not a Christian and believes that there was a big bang and here we are now. I do not agree with that. I believe that God created the world, and sent his only son, Jesus to die on the cross for us. There was no big bang, which blew up matter that came from nowhere and all of a sudden created Earth. In the beginning there was God, and HE created Earth, not a big bang, that *poof* blew up and here we are. He brought up a lot of interesting points in this chapter. He says that life is fair, when asked if he thought if life was fair, and said that it was people that were not fair. Not life. I agree with that. It is because of the people’s choices that they think that life is not fair, when it is perfectly fair.
First Blog
I started reading the book King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher for my honors English class. When I first started reading the book, I didn’t really like it because it was not my type of book. This was an autobiography of his life. I was more interested in fiction. Well, I also didn’t like it because of his pattern of writing.
His pattern of writing was to write about anything and everything that came to mind. He did not do it in chronological order or any other order. He just wrote about his life. He would start a chapter with his childhood, and then all of a sudden go on to talk about his adult life and something he learned from it. Usually, when he skipped around like that, the previous topic had something to do with what he was writing now. But sometimes he would just randomly start talking about something else. If he was talking about BB guns, all of a sudden he would start talking about table manners. This happened rarely because he would usually talk about the same topic. It could be a topic that came up in his childhood life, or when that topic came up in his adult life.
This book made me laugh from time to time as I was reading it in the beginning. There were many parts that were funny. But also it was very stupid. I did not want to read the book and that made me start out reading it with a bad attitude. Although it was funny sometimes, it was not always funny. It was sad and depressing at times. His brother manipulated him.
One time his brother asked him if he wanted to “do something neat”. Chris knew that his brother was just trying to manipulate him. He asked Chris to run around back and forth in the ditch. While Chris would be running around, his brother would shoot a BB gun at him that they got from a neighbor. At first Chris kept saying no because their dad told them that they are not allowed to even TOUCH a gun, let alone use it. But his brother still got him to do it. Chris also didn’t want to do it because of the danger of being hit in the head with a BB. His brother told him that it’s not possible due to the dark and that Chris was so far away from him. So Chris went out into the ditch and started running around. The first shot that was fired from the gun, hit its target right in the head. Chris fell down and started screaming, more from being terrified than from the pain.
His brother than tricked him into not telling his parents about it. He told him that if he told the parents that he got a BB in his head, they would send him to the doctor and the doctor would but a knife to his head and cut him open. This made Chris keep quiet.
There were many other parts that were funny but a lot of parts that were just plain stupid. So what I am trying to say, is that when I started reading this book, I was NOT excited about reading it at all. I didn’t want to spend my time reading a book that I wasn’t interested in reading. The only reason I kept reading it is because of my Honors English class and my assignment. That assignment made me keep going on and reading the book that was my assignment.
His pattern of writing was to write about anything and everything that came to mind. He did not do it in chronological order or any other order. He just wrote about his life. He would start a chapter with his childhood, and then all of a sudden go on to talk about his adult life and something he learned from it. Usually, when he skipped around like that, the previous topic had something to do with what he was writing now. But sometimes he would just randomly start talking about something else. If he was talking about BB guns, all of a sudden he would start talking about table manners. This happened rarely because he would usually talk about the same topic. It could be a topic that came up in his childhood life, or when that topic came up in his adult life.
This book made me laugh from time to time as I was reading it in the beginning. There were many parts that were funny. But also it was very stupid. I did not want to read the book and that made me start out reading it with a bad attitude. Although it was funny sometimes, it was not always funny. It was sad and depressing at times. His brother manipulated him.
One time his brother asked him if he wanted to “do something neat”. Chris knew that his brother was just trying to manipulate him. He asked Chris to run around back and forth in the ditch. While Chris would be running around, his brother would shoot a BB gun at him that they got from a neighbor. At first Chris kept saying no because their dad told them that they are not allowed to even TOUCH a gun, let alone use it. But his brother still got him to do it. Chris also didn’t want to do it because of the danger of being hit in the head with a BB. His brother told him that it’s not possible due to the dark and that Chris was so far away from him. So Chris went out into the ditch and started running around. The first shot that was fired from the gun, hit its target right in the head. Chris fell down and started screaming, more from being terrified than from the pain.
His brother than tricked him into not telling his parents about it. He told him that if he told the parents that he got a BB in his head, they would send him to the doctor and the doctor would but a knife to his head and cut him open. This made Chris keep quiet.
There were many other parts that were funny but a lot of parts that were just plain stupid. So what I am trying to say, is that when I started reading this book, I was NOT excited about reading it at all. I didn’t want to spend my time reading a book that I wasn’t interested in reading. The only reason I kept reading it is because of my Honors English class and my assignment. That assignment made me keep going on and reading the book that was my assignment.
Works Cited Page
Crutcher, Chris. King of the Mild Frontier. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.
O'Meara, Sara. "National Child Abuse Statistics." Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse. Online. Internet. 16 Januare. 2008. Available: http://www.childhelp.org/
O'Meara, Sara. "National Child Abuse Statistics." Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse. Online. Internet. 16 Januare. 2008. Available: http://www.childhelp.org/
Issue on Child Abuse that was presented in the novel
In this novel, child abuse was presented many times. Although it did not happen to Chris personally, he worked with many people that have been abused or have abused someone else. Chris works as a therapist, and he talked about a man, who came in for treatment. That man had one day gotten really mad, and he shook his baby daughter. He lost his parental rights to her and went to jail for a short time. He came to get help from his anger management problems. Chris helped him over come his problem and helped him get ready to be a father to the new baby that was coming. There was also another man, which would discipline his children harshly. He would make them stand in a corner, and repeat everything that they did wrong backwards to him. He was a very strong man and a very tall man, so Chris could understand how the children felt threatened by him.
Did you know that 4 children die each day from child abuse and that three out of four of these victims are under the age of 4? There are only 3 million reports of child abuse made every year in the United States, but experts calculate that the actual number is three times greater than that. A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds. This abusing cycle keeps moving because, one third of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, which keeps this horrible cycle in motion. There is an estimated 906,000 children that are abused every year, and the children that are most likely receiving this abuse and neglect are between the ages of 0-3. There are many children killed, but 74% of them are children that are younger than the age of four. These are just some of the many statistics that are out there on child abuse.
What is child abuse you might ask? Well, as it is defined by ChildHelp: Child abuse consists of any act of commission or omission that endangers or impairs a child's physical or emotional health and development. Child abuse includes any damage done to a child which cannot be reasonably explained and which is often represented by an injury or series of injuries appearing to be non-accidental in nature. When you know about someone that is abused, it is said that you are not to investigate and ask questions. Instead, provide a safe environment for the child, and tell them that it is not their fault. You should be supportive and know our limits. Tell the truth, but make no promises to them. If you ask them questions, they should only be the following four: What happened? Who did this to you? Where were you when this happened? When did this happen? Do not ask anymore questions, for it may contaminate the case. Notify the local law enforcement agency. Never tell the parent or guardian about it. It is most likely them, or someone they know who is doing the abusing.
This is a very important issue and a very serious one. It is not something to joke about. Chris Crutcher knows that. And although he joked about a lot of other topics, this was not a topic that the joked about. It is a very important issue that was presented in this novel, and it needs to be stopped. Too many children are dying for unnecessary reasons. Crutcher makes his thoughts clear about child abuse. It is very wrong and needs to be stopped immediately.
Did you know that 4 children die each day from child abuse and that three out of four of these victims are under the age of 4? There are only 3 million reports of child abuse made every year in the United States, but experts calculate that the actual number is three times greater than that. A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds. This abusing cycle keeps moving because, one third of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, which keeps this horrible cycle in motion. There is an estimated 906,000 children that are abused every year, and the children that are most likely receiving this abuse and neglect are between the ages of 0-3. There are many children killed, but 74% of them are children that are younger than the age of four. These are just some of the many statistics that are out there on child abuse.
What is child abuse you might ask? Well, as it is defined by ChildHelp: Child abuse consists of any act of commission or omission that endangers or impairs a child's physical or emotional health and development. Child abuse includes any damage done to a child which cannot be reasonably explained and which is often represented by an injury or series of injuries appearing to be non-accidental in nature. When you know about someone that is abused, it is said that you are not to investigate and ask questions. Instead, provide a safe environment for the child, and tell them that it is not their fault. You should be supportive and know our limits. Tell the truth, but make no promises to them. If you ask them questions, they should only be the following four: What happened? Who did this to you? Where were you when this happened? When did this happen? Do not ask anymore questions, for it may contaminate the case. Notify the local law enforcement agency. Never tell the parent or guardian about it. It is most likely them, or someone they know who is doing the abusing.
This is a very important issue and a very serious one. It is not something to joke about. Chris Crutcher knows that. And although he joked about a lot of other topics, this was not a topic that the joked about. It is a very important issue that was presented in this novel, and it needs to be stopped. Too many children are dying for unnecessary reasons. Crutcher makes his thoughts clear about child abuse. It is very wrong and needs to be stopped immediately.
Evaluation of Novel
EVALUATiON OF NOVEL:
There are six traits +1 of writing that is used to evaluate writing. The first trait is ideas and content. Then comes the organization trait and the individual voice trait. Then the word choice, sentence fluency and conventions trait. The +1 trait is the presentation.
In the book that I read, the ideas and content trait was used. I thought that it wasn’t used all that well. He had many ideas and he talked about them in different spots of the book. It was not always clear and complete because he would trail off into a different subject. Also, it wasn’t all that focused. But the details that he had were pretty interesting. They were also very insightful and original.
The second trait is organization. I thought that Chris Crutcher did a pretty bad job on this trait. His book was not organized at all. He just went from story to story in no particular order. Although his stories did tie in to each other someway or another, he still had no organization. Sometimes it was hard to follow because one moment, he would be writing about going camping as a little boy, and the next, he would be talking about something that happened in his therapist career. On this trait, Crutcher did not do a very good job.
Individual voice was probably the best trait that he had in his novel. I could tell his voice and that it was him, because through the whole novel he was talking about himself. He had pretty strong ideas about different things. He was very committed to and involved with his topic, because his topic was him. And Chris Crutcher likes to talk about himself, as you would find out if you read any of his other books. He also contained a definite point of view, which was his point of view on his life.
There were many active, energetic verbs in his novel. He painted pictures with his words, so that I could visualize what he was talking about. Every new sentence contained something new and exciting. Crutcher used this trait pretty well too. He did not slack off on using active verbs. The sentences were vivid and you would not get bored of them.
That brings us into the fifth trait, the sentence fluency trait. The sentences were easy to read, although they had a few words that were hard to understand. The rhythm just kept going on and on and on. They varied in length and either would be long and elaborate, or short. Chris had an effective use of conjunctions and transitions
Well, the conventions were of course correct. It is, after all, a published book. The spelling was all correct and the punctuation was correct and effective. The grammar was used not always in the appropriate way, but mostly it was used correctly. The capitalization was all the way that the author wanted it, and he wanted it to be correct, so the capitalization was correct. This book was designed to make reading easy, and it was.
The last trait, referred to as the +1 trait, is presentation. On the cover of the book, is the lower half of a boy’s face, which has a wide grin on it, and the upper part of his body. The boy is wearing a red turtleneck. It is not the most appealing cover, but it catches your eye. The back gives a brief summary of the story. But if you were reading it over, it probably would not catch your attention as much as some action story would.
There are six traits +1 of writing that is used to evaluate writing. The first trait is ideas and content. Then comes the organization trait and the individual voice trait. Then the word choice, sentence fluency and conventions trait. The +1 trait is the presentation.
In the book that I read, the ideas and content trait was used. I thought that it wasn’t used all that well. He had many ideas and he talked about them in different spots of the book. It was not always clear and complete because he would trail off into a different subject. Also, it wasn’t all that focused. But the details that he had were pretty interesting. They were also very insightful and original.
The second trait is organization. I thought that Chris Crutcher did a pretty bad job on this trait. His book was not organized at all. He just went from story to story in no particular order. Although his stories did tie in to each other someway or another, he still had no organization. Sometimes it was hard to follow because one moment, he would be writing about going camping as a little boy, and the next, he would be talking about something that happened in his therapist career. On this trait, Crutcher did not do a very good job.
Individual voice was probably the best trait that he had in his novel. I could tell his voice and that it was him, because through the whole novel he was talking about himself. He had pretty strong ideas about different things. He was very committed to and involved with his topic, because his topic was him. And Chris Crutcher likes to talk about himself, as you would find out if you read any of his other books. He also contained a definite point of view, which was his point of view on his life.
There were many active, energetic verbs in his novel. He painted pictures with his words, so that I could visualize what he was talking about. Every new sentence contained something new and exciting. Crutcher used this trait pretty well too. He did not slack off on using active verbs. The sentences were vivid and you would not get bored of them.
That brings us into the fifth trait, the sentence fluency trait. The sentences were easy to read, although they had a few words that were hard to understand. The rhythm just kept going on and on and on. They varied in length and either would be long and elaborate, or short. Chris had an effective use of conjunctions and transitions
Well, the conventions were of course correct. It is, after all, a published book. The spelling was all correct and the punctuation was correct and effective. The grammar was used not always in the appropriate way, but mostly it was used correctly. The capitalization was all the way that the author wanted it, and he wanted it to be correct, so the capitalization was correct. This book was designed to make reading easy, and it was.
The last trait, referred to as the +1 trait, is presentation. On the cover of the book, is the lower half of a boy’s face, which has a wide grin on it, and the upper part of his body. The boy is wearing a red turtleneck. It is not the most appealing cover, but it catches your eye. The back gives a brief summary of the story. But if you were reading it over, it probably would not catch your attention as much as some action story would.
Background Information
PLOT SUMMARY: This book is an autobiography of Chris Crutchers life. So basically, this book is a summary of Chris Crutchers life. His childhood was very full and he had many adventures along with his brother. Chris was a very wimpy kid who could not run 100 yards without having to stop and breathe. He was a huge troublemaker, and whenever something big would happen, Chris would be the one everyone looked at. He lived in a small town, so that if he ever made a mistake, everyone in the town knew about it. Chris also had a very quick temper. When he was a little child, he would often get so mad that he would hurt himself. He became a teacher for a while, and then he started writing stories. He became a writer when he made up a book report for school and got a good grade on it. That is what started off his whole author career. Now, Chris is a therapist and his life experiences helped him relate to his clients in his therapist career.
SETTiNG: This book is placed in the small town of Cascade, Idaho. The years of his early childhood life were in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The town is very small, so that all the boys were forced to play sports, even if they had no athletic ability whatsoever or any interest at all. That is what happened to Chris, who had no athletic ability at all.
CHARACTER DESCRiPTiON AND DEVELOPMENT:
The main character in this book is Chris Crutcher. This book is indeed an ill-advised autobiography, so the main character has to be the author. Chris started out his early life as a dateless, broken-toothed, scabbed-over, God-fearing dweeb. He would always get into trouble for doing one thing or another. He worked with his father at the gas station, and he knew where the key to the vending machine was hidden, so he was not very athletic. He loved junk food and because of that, he was very unpopular. But that didn’t stop him from being a trouble maker. Chris had no athletic ability at all, so when he went camping one time, he was so slow, that the leader made him walk in front of everyone and no one was allowed to pass him. Finally, he graduated, and wanted to become a teacher. He finally found that he was a pretty good swimmer, and later, that he was also a pretty good runner. He then decided that he was a good therapist, so he became a therapist and is still in that career to this day.
SETTiNG: This book is placed in the small town of Cascade, Idaho. The years of his early childhood life were in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The town is very small, so that all the boys were forced to play sports, even if they had no athletic ability whatsoever or any interest at all. That is what happened to Chris, who had no athletic ability at all.
CHARACTER DESCRiPTiON AND DEVELOPMENT:
The main character in this book is Chris Crutcher. This book is indeed an ill-advised autobiography, so the main character has to be the author. Chris started out his early life as a dateless, broken-toothed, scabbed-over, God-fearing dweeb. He would always get into trouble for doing one thing or another. He worked with his father at the gas station, and he knew where the key to the vending machine was hidden, so he was not very athletic. He loved junk food and because of that, he was very unpopular. But that didn’t stop him from being a trouble maker. Chris had no athletic ability at all, so when he went camping one time, he was so slow, that the leader made him walk in front of everyone and no one was allowed to pass him. Finally, he graduated, and wanted to become a teacher. He finally found that he was a pretty good swimmer, and later, that he was also a pretty good runner. He then decided that he was a good therapist, so he became a therapist and is still in that career to this day.
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